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I’ve just read an amazing article about the Death Penalty in India and like its author I’m totally against all forms of Capital Punishment. Still, I am interested in what my readers are thinking about this topic, so I made a poll where you can vote for or against the Death Penalty. Of course the voting is totally anonymous, so don’t worry about me seeing your name/IP address or anything like that.
Please leave a comment here if you want to say something more about this issue. Below you can find “Reasons against the death penalty” with a few comments by me and also the article I mentioned above.

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In case you’ve asked yourself this, cause you’ve seen the name “Kony” float around the web during the last hours, you asked the right question! The answer is in this video, and I strongly recommend you watch the whole thing, because there is some really important information in it. Also, it’s only 30 minutes, not 3 hours, so I bet you’ll survive focussing your attention on this video for a while. Continue reading Stop Kony? Who the F*** is Kony???→

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A young girl from Ciudad Juarez prepares for her 15th birthday party, a coming of age party known as a "quinceañera." Her family spent most of their savings on making it a happy occasion. Her father had recently lost his job and was making ends meet by making repairs to homes in the neighborhood. Photo: Dominic Bracco II

Juarez, Mexico is a war zone.

The war is being waged by two rival drug cartels, the Juarez and the Sinoloa, block by block for control of the city and its trafficking routes. The result is extreme levels of violence, corruption and intimidation. And for the past two years, photographer Dominic Bracco II has been covering the war’s effects on the border town’s residents. While he is working there as a journalist, Bracco can’t help but feel invested in the subjects that he’s become so familiar with.

“I want an American audience to look at my pictures and see how people are living on the border as result of American policies and Mexican corruption and take some responsibility,” he says.

Bracco, who grew up on the border in Texas and speaks fluent Spanish, says he doesn’t feel constantly threatened while working in Juarez but he certainly takes precautions. Even though he lives in Mexico City, no one knows his home address. And he only flies into Juarez when he’s working on his story or an assignment.

He regularly works with the same fixer who knows Juarez well and they both do their best to stay under the radar, like driving beat-up cars that don’t attract the attention of car jackers. Bracco says the flip side of this, however, is that the beat-up cars often break down, stranding them in some of the most dangerous parts of the city.

He never calls his subjects ahead to time to let them know he’s coming; he just shows up. for fear of who might be listening. He just shows up.

HONG KONG — The former Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, told one of China’s most senior diplomats on Saturday that “the Arab Spring is coming to China,” pointing to the wave of Tibetans setting themselves on fire in China.

With the news Sunday of three more Tibetan self-immolations, at least 18 ethnic Tibetans — many of them current or former Buddhist clergy members — have set themselves alight in the past year to protest Beijing’s harsh stance against the Dalai Lama and the apparent suppression of Tibetan religious and cultural practices.

All the self-immolations have occurred in Tibet and the western Chinese province of Sichuan.

Three Tibetans in Sichuan burned themselves on Friday, according to news reports on Sunday.

Zhang Zhijun, the Chinese vice foreign minister, was on a panel with Senator McCain at a security conference in Munich, and Mr. Zhang termed the notion of an Arab Spring-style uprising in China as “no more than fantasy.”

“It is a matter of concern when Tibetans are burning themselves to death because of the continued repression of the Tibetan people in your country,” Senator McCain told Mr. Zhang during the panel, reiterating his belief that “the Arab Spring is coming to China as well.”

A street vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire in December 2010, and his death was the catalyst for nationwide riots and protests. Similar rebellions followed in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen.

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.
Check out http://www.lambdalegal.org/

Hey guys, I just thought I should update you about what I’ve changed here lately. First, I’ve obviously changed the layout about 7390 times, but I’m pretty sure that I’ve found the right one now. I’m really happy with it and plan to keep it for a while.

The new header was created by none other than me, myself, and I, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. I’ve never done any graphic design before, so this header is the first thing I created (with Gimp, cause I can’t even afford a proper graphic design software).
Self conscious as I am, I immediately asked my 1,044 Twitter followers what they thought about it and I’m really grateful that two of them replied and liked it. Twitter can be funny sometimes. When you want to be left alone, everybody wants to talk to you, but when you actually ask people something you just hear the crickets chirr.

Some other great news is that you can share all the blog posts now on Tumblr, too! Just use the button in the share section right under the blog post. There you also find buttons for Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Google+ and many other social networks. Thanks to everyone who shares, will share and has shared my posts. It’s much appreciated.

In case you want to rate my blog posts, from now on you can do this on the home page without having to open the blog post, you want to rate, first. It’s nice to get some feedback, so feel free to give me grades, no matter if good ones or bad ones, or just leave a comment if you have something to say!

Also, welcome to all the new subsribers! I’ve gained a few during the last weeks and it means a lot that you want to have my blog posts in your mail box!